Rafael França, from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, was the Brazilian precursor of the experiments intermingling art and technology that began midway through the 20th century. Forever restless, back in the 1970s he made innovative use of such means as photocopying. In the 80s, after spells working with installation, performance, and urban intervention, he became a pioneer of video art, producing a blend of work that subverted regular fictional forms by turning himself and his friends into challenging characters and by manipulating such elements as synchronized speech in a bid to alter notions of space and time. The work recovers Rafael França's pioneering trajectory, marked as it was by the recurrent themes of death and sexuality, and prematurely interrupted by AIDS in 1991. In addition to images of the artist and excerpts from his works, there are also depositions from the visual artist Regina Silveira, one of his greatest encouragers; Mario Ramiro and Hudnilson Jr., with whom he formed the performance trio 3NÓS3 in the 1970s; and the theoretician Arlindo Machado.
The work is part of Videobrasil Authors Collection series. Further info on this project in our website.
